In April 2017, I had the opportunity to participate at CRA-Women Grad Cohort Workshop together with a group of other females students from IST.
The CRA-W Grad Cohort program, initiated in 2004, is generously funded by sponsors from industry, ACM, CRA, academia, the National Science Foundation, and the computing community. Grad Cohort aims to increase the ranks of senior women in computing-related studies and research by building and mentoring nationwide communities of women through their graduate studies.
Here for more information: http://cra.org/cra-w/events/grad-cohort-workshop-2017/
I decided to attend because I think it is important to connect with other women in computing, and learn from each other experiences and research achievement.
The workshop presented me different perspectives of research methodologies and we heard great advice from senior women in computing on how to succeed and overcome barriers in our career path. This workshop was super helpful because I could relate with many of the stories shared and I realized I am not the only one facing these difficulties. So, I found support and understanding among those women. We are all in this together!
My experience is similar to many women who caved the way to find space and fight to be heard and valued. Recently, I was award to go to a conference and all the women from my lab congratulated me except the men. They just ignored my achievement and did not even mentioned that. This is just one example of the fight I face every day.
I have the plan to pursue Academia Career. This conference helped me because they offered lectures to help you find jobs, to create your professional persona, to understand the difference between academia and industry. All those lectures helped me to understand better the research reality and to prepare me for the job market.
I met a girl from Irvine University and she is at her 1st year PhD program. I presented a 
poster about my research, and she is interested in working in a similar project. Her excitement about my work really encouraged me to continue doing a good job. She said she is really interested to work together with me in the future.
I would highly encourage other women from our department to go to this conference. It is a great opportunity to learn and grow from senior women in computing.
Jomara Bindá